COPA final

This ref is terrible. At least he made up for it by making it 10 v 10.

hombres.  Dominating possession with their rough, aggressive style blended with highly skilled players.  Alexis Sanchez is a joy to watch on the counter attack, and Vidal is so intimidatingly effective when he goes into berserker mode.  

This kind of referee in the final game in a major soccer tournament is so rare. It's just so bad. I normally only see this in NBA playoff game.

that was a foot clear of the bar

I missed the discussion on the excuse of the "US doesn't commit its best athlees to soccer, therefore other nations will be superior", so I figured I'd post here. I find it amusing that this excuse emerges every time the US has exited a tournament to a superior team since 2006; I never heard this excuse in 1998 nor 2002. As other people noted, the US is already a very athletic team; I'm not certain what having another level of elite athletes will add. Guys like Yedlin, Altidore, Johnson,and Jones aren't you're average athlete--is having someone who can run up and down the field marginally faster than Yedlin going to improve the US team? 

The other part of this excuse is the arrogance regarding US athleticism relative to other soccer nations. The US isn't the only country producing superior athletes. I'd argue that Nigeria and Ivory Coast have the most athletic (i.e. playing with pace and power) international squads. But when they less athletic, yet tactically and technically sound teams, such as Egypt in the African Cup of Nations, they tend to lose. And most top players are already elite athletes--are the Lebrons of the world that more athletic than Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Gareth Bale or Sergio Ramos, especially within the skills and athleticism necessary for soccer? 

The US should focus on technique and tactics--as they've seen against Ghana, Belgium, and most recently Argentina and Colombia, the athleticism can be matched (Ghana) or outplayed by technique (Belgium, Argentina, and Colombia). This comes down to coaching and the soccer culture; less emphasis on pure athleticism, and more technique--even England have realized the necessity of this.